The journey through Enchanted Forest had been a long one, and the human felt every step of it in her bones. Her legs ached from the trek through the dense forest, the air thick with the scent of earth and damp wood. The towering trees loomed like ancient giants, their trunks twisted with the weight of centuries. As she made her way deeper, the sun’s light began to grow muted, filtered through the heavy canopy, casting long shadows over the path.

But there, ahead, the forest opened up, and she could sense a change in the air—a subtle hum, a vibration as if the very earth itself was alive and aware. She stepped into a clearing, the ground beneath her feet soft and moss-covered, and there before her stood the Mother Tree—a massive, ancient entity that dwarfed most of the trees around it. Its bark was dark and weathered, veins of glowing green running through it like the pulse of the land itself. The tree stretched high into the sky, its roots sprawling out like tendrils, reaching down to the earth with an almost otherworldly grace. It radiated a quiet, palpable energy, as if it were the very heart of the world.

And then she saw her.

Oni stood at the base of the Mother Tree, her presence commanding yet serene. Her appearance was striking, almost otherworldly in the twilight of the forest. She was taller than the mortal had expected, her silhouette framed by the ethereal glow of the Life Tree which stood adjacent to the Mother Tree. Her skin was the color of pale moonlight, almost translucent, like a soft mist that glimmered faintly with an inner light. It was not harsh, not otherworldly in a way that frightened—but in a way that spoke of ancient knowledge, of something beyond mortal comprehension.

Her hair cascaded around her shoulders in a silken wave of silver-white, the strands shifting with the faintest breeze. It shimmered like strands of light woven through the darkness, and for a moment, the human wondered if it were hair at all, or something more akin to the vines that climbed the Mother Tree’s trunk.

But it was her eyes that caught the girl's breath. Oni’s eyes were the color of deep, dark forests, a rich, emerald green that seemed to glow with an inner fire. It was the same color as the veins running through the Mother Tree, the very essence of the world itself. Her gaze was intense, knowing, as if she saw through the human, into the very core of her being, past the surface and into her heart. The girl felt small, almost insignificant, under her gaze, yet there was no judgment in it—only a quiet, knowing warmth.

Her robes—if they could be called that—were not garments in the traditional sense, but more like the very fabric of the forest itself. Woven from strands of living vines and soft leaves that seemed to shift and shimmer, they flowed around her form in a graceful, undulating motion. The robe shifted in color, echoing the greens and silvers of the forest and the tree, blending into the surroundings as if she were part of the very landscape.

The air around Oni seemed to hum with a quiet power, a calm strength that was palpable. It was not the kind of power one might associate with dominance or control, but rather the steady pulse of life itself—the kind of force that could not be fought or outrun, but only understood and respected. She was a living embodiment of nature’s resilience, its beauty, and its ferocity.

The girl took a step forward, drawn toward her not by any command, but by a deep, almost instinctual need to be in her presence. It was as if the forest itself had beckoned her here, and Oni, the Fey Queen, was the final, inevitable step in the journey. 

For the first time in her life, the human felt as though she were standing before something ancient, something timeless, and she could not help but feel both awed and humbled. There was a deep, quiet peace in the air, but beneath it, there was a power—something that could not be ignored, something that was greater than anything the girl could comprehend.

Oni’s voice broke the silence, soft but carrying the weight of ages.

“You’ve come far to find me, mortal.”

It was not a question, but a statement, one that carried with it the weight of destiny. And as the human gazed at her, standing in the presence of something far beyond her understanding, she realized the truth—she had not merely come to meet Oni. She had come to meet the life force of Aer itself.